MICKLETON — Amid the snowy days of this winter, the East Greenwich Township School District was finally able to bury the #HornetsWriteOn time capsule on Feb. 10, 2021.
The #HornetsWriteOn project was created to commemorate the 2020 National Writing Day. The school community was invited to reflect, share, draw and write about their experiences during the pandemic and their hopes for the future. From preschoolers to 6th graders to staff members, letters, essays, and drawings were collected and were stored in the time capsule.
The dedication ceremony was attended by local dignitaries, teachers, and administrators. Honored guests included East Greenwich Township School Board President Todd Jones, East Greenwich Police Chief Matthew Brenner, and East Greenwich Mayor Dale Archer. The ceremony began with a welcome speech by Jennifer Hunt, creator of the #HornetsWriteOn time capsule project and team leader for a district task force, Writing Matters. Hunt thanked Superintendent Andrea Evans, and Supervisor of Literacy Lisa Giorgianni for their support and encouragement in making this project happen.
Honored guests shared their words of wisdom. Jones expressed his gratitude for everyone’s participation in the ceremony and added, “I’d like to thank Mrs. Hunt, teachers, staff and students participating in the event.” Chief Brenner shared, “In the years to come, when this capsule is reopened, it will be a reminder of where we were, the adversities we faced and how much we have grown as students, teachers and human beings. Our future selves will reflect on the moment in this pandemic as just a snippet of time. But it will be our underlying perseverance and fortitude that will highlight the conversations by those who open the capsule in 2025.”
Chief Brenner concluded his words of wisdom with, “Always remember that there is no easy way out when facing adversity and that is what we are facing right now. I always remember the one saying — the only way out is courage. And that is what we are doing.”
Mayor Archer reflected, “Some would say that this year has created difficulties that even made the world stop. However, the world did not stop. Rather, we learned to adapt and overcome adversities. We started remote learning. We held virtual meetings. We modified services to ensure the safety of the residents of children of this community. On so many levels, 2020 has been tremendously difficult. However, 2020 is not a year to forget but a year to remember and how it defines us. We must appreciate the sacrifices we made but also the knowledge that we gained. Most importantly, we should take comfort in knowing that we are now a better prepared society.”
Archer concluded, “The takeaways from 2020 should be that we have persevered and that the strength and resolve to overcome any obstacles and even those obstacles that we can’t even see with our own eyes, let us not forget this year.”
At the conclusion of the remarks, Hunt read a prose poem she created for the staff and students of the East Greenwich Township Schools. Superintendent Evans thanked everyone for attending and invited guests to join in the burial of the time capsule. Using the same shovel that was used at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Samuel Mickle Elementary School, Hunt tossed the first pile of dirt into the time capsule hole. All the ceremony attendees took a turn tossing the dirt into the deep hole.
Evans concluded the ceremony with, “One of the things that makes us special as a community is our willingness to come together for any challenge that we face, and we certainly faced many challenges over the past year. But this time capsule gives us something to look forward to. In a few years when we open it up, our students will be four years older and they will have a lot of reflection on this time to be able to look back and remember their hopes and wishes and to be able to celebrate all the successes from now until 2025.”
